Dear Reader,
You’ve probably heard of “grazing” – eating more small meals a day instead of two or three big ones. It’s true that if you do it right, you can boost your metabolism, get more energy, ease digestion, and even shed pounds.
But most people don’t do it right.
One of the most important keys is to make sure you’re using the right snacks throughout the day. But a lot of the things people graze on fall short – including foods we’ve come to think of as “healthy.”
Take granola, something a lot of people reach for as a nutritious between-meals snack. It’s actually not good for you. Even with the brands that contain only organic ingredients, granola’s packed with processed, high-glycemic carbs derived from grains. Then, they add extra high-glycemic sweeteners like, sugar, corn syrup and honey. They also usually are either deficient in fat or have the wrong kind of fat and oils to bind into those little nuggets. And it doesn’t have much in the way of nutrients.
This is exactly the opposite of what you want to be snacking on if you’re looking to improve your health for the same reason you’ve heard me harp on. (High glycemic carbs spike your blood sugar, leading to increased insulin levels. Insulin’s a hormone that tells your body to store those calories – as fat.)
So instead of losing weight, you’re actually packing on the pounds leading to more body fat and, over time, heart disease and diabetes.
And even the protein-based snacks fail to deliver on their promise because the protein they contain comes from inferior sources like soy, collagen and gelatin.
If you really want to snack healthy and burn fat, you need to first consume high-quality protein. These contain the essential amino acids your body converts into energy and muscle.
And, you’ve probably heard me say that eating a lot of protein also tells your body that “the hunting is good” and switches your metabolic engine to burn fat instead of storing it. This is how your physiology evolved to digest protein, carbohydrate and fat. Our pre-historic ancestors survived largely on nuts, seeds, berries, aboveground vegetables, and protein and fat from their hunting and fishing.
It was never meant to subsist on grain-based foods. The evidence for this exists in the archeological record. Archaeologists looked at 800 skeletons of native people in burial mounds around the Illinois and Ohio River valleys. They found that when corn became the staple of their diet, they also experienced a 50 percent increase in malnutrition, a four-fold increase in iron-deficiency, and a three-fold increase in infectious disease compared to their hunter-gatherer ancestors.1
You have to apply this knowledge to your snacks… But hardly anyone does… So…
I made my own.
When my patients ask me for advice on healthy snack alternatives, I tell them to avoid grain-based snacks like granola and stick with what our ancestors grazed on. Here are a few suggestions:
• Nuts: a great source of protein, healthy fatty acids, and critically important trace elements. For instance, almonds contain vitamin E and potassium for heart and bone health. They’re also a source of manganese, a key ingredient your body needs to make superoxide dismutase or SOD, an antioxidant so powerful that some call it the “enzyme of life.”
• Raisins, prunes, and apricots and berries: rich in antioxidants and resveratrol, a compound that helps your body ward off cancer and the oxidative damage that accelerates cell death and aging.
• Grass-fed beef jerky or wild-caught salmon jerky: rich in protein, amino acids, and omega-3. I buy mine at www.grasslandbeef.com.
I’ve also formulated my own brand of natural snacks based on this same supposition. They’re called Primal Snacks. They’re packed with natural nutrient sources, including almonds, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. These deliver omega-3s, antioxidants, protein, potassium, zinc, and the right plant sterols.
You can “graze” on these snacks without guilt. They’ll increase your metabolism, ramp up your immune strength, boost heart health, increase bone density, and prevent enlarge prostate. They’re not available for sale to the general public, but I’ve got an advance shipment in our offices ready for my subscribers. Click HERE to try yours today.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
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1 Cordain et al. “Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations on worldwide hunter-gatherer diets.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2000. 71(3):682-692.